


Rush

by stephanericher



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, M/M, MerMay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-11
Updated: 2019-05-11
Packaged: 2020-02-29 19:53:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18785083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stephanericher/pseuds/stephanericher
Summary: It's been so long.





	Rush

"You don't have to," Taiga says.

Tatsuya squints at the water below, Taiga's red tail flashing just under the surface, the slight webbing on Taiga's fingers where he grips the rocks. The unspoken half of Taiga's sentence, the extra clause--it's if he doesn't want to, but it's also if he can't. He doesn't have to transform. It's been years since he let himself, and though Alex told him it's not something he can lose the capacity to do, he's wondered if maybe she doesn't know that for sure, if there's so little sea blood in him it's dried up and left him, that when his growth plates had fused they'd done something else to him.

Maybe he can't, and maybe his body won't, but that's not because he doesn't want to, or because he won't try. Tatsuya pulls off his shorts and lowers himself into the water, the rocks digging into his palms. He closes his eyes. He has thought about this often since the last time he'd done it, so young and so used to transforming back and forth, more comfortable with a tail than with legs despite his barely-there webbing and the trouble he'd had (and probably still does) adjusting to the water pressure. But it's been a long time.

Nothing happens, but Tatsuya waits for it, and then he starts to feel it, unmistakable. He's not prepared for the pain of the scales splitting the skin on his legs as they fuse together, the sensation of something between his fingers that makes him want to tear it out and stretch them apart. His throat is on fire; he loses his hold on the rocks, pushing off just quickly enough for his thrashing half-tail to miss slamming down on them, This is so fucking embarrassing, but the fact that he can be aware of that means it's not as painful as it could be. He focuses, pulling himself underwater. It's cool and salty and right on his skin, through his gills. Tatsuya takes a conscious, shuddering breath; in and out. There is no sense of drowning, no sense that all of this is wrong, so he opens his eye. Below him is the shallow ocean bottom, dropping off some ways away, but before that is his tail, slate grey and shimmering in the blotted surface light. His fins looks good, way more powerful than they'd been the last time, wide and flat and strong. Tatsuya flicks his tail and launches back up to the surface, faster than he's expecting.

Taiga's still near the rocks, treading with his arms at the surface; he swims over far more smoothly than Tatsuya can. He's grinning, smile bright in the sun, and Tatsuya smiles back.

"You good?"

"Yeah," says Tatsuya.

Taiga holds out his hand and Tatsuya takes it. It’s like the first time they’d held hands as humans, so long ago, Taiga’s feet awkward and slipping on the shore and still unused to all the space between his fingers. It’s almost the same now for Tatsuya, still--growing up hadn’t done anything to fix that, even if it had given him fuller scales and a proper tail, but they still have to clasp hands differently, like they had when Tatsuya was still dragging Taiga through forests of kelp and sunken ships, searching through plants and hunks of metal for the treasure that they’d never found. 

This time, Taiga pulls Tatsuya back underwater, tugging him away from the shoreline. Tatsuya’s seen him transformed before, the sheen of his tail, his powerful fins, but it’s usually been from further back on the rocks, watching Taiga’s stuff or reading a book while Taiga goes out to sea. Taiga hadn’t given up on coaxing him out, too, and Tatsuya feels deeply grateful for that, but it’s a little complicated too. With Taiga, it always is. 

“Where are we going?” Tatsuya says.

“You’ll see,” says Taiga.

It’s been so long since they’ve been together underwater--Tatsuya would say like this, but it wasn’t like this. It’s been years since it was just the two of them; it’s been longer still since it was just the two of them and no complications from Tatsuya’s inability to deal with his own physical limitations. They have never had a chance to do everything Tatsuya wants to do to Taiga in this moment, to thank him and hold him close and pin him to the sand and wrap their tails together and--well. Tatsuya’s getting ahead of himself, probably. 

They swim past a school of fish, oblivious to their presence; small animals scuttle by on the ocean floor. Rays of sunlight bounce and light the way, as if filtered through clouds, melting the colors around them. Tatsuya slows his pace, and almost corrects himself before Taiga slows to match him. 

“Sorry,” Tatsuya says. “It’s just—”

He hadn’t forgotten how it looks; if he said that it would be a lie. This has never left his memory, but at the time it had been, or seemed, more commonplace, less vibrant and less something else. 

“It’s beautiful,” says Taiga.

“Yeah,” says Tatsuya.

They wait at the dropoff, staring down at the town below. No doubt the population has changed, the animals have changed, the shops have changed. But it’s still there, the layout similar enough to bring back memories of another him, suspended in the water looking down from this vantage point. 

Taiga leads him down, at first straight and then left, as they get closer to the ocean floor. The crooked signpost and the remnants of a path jostle Tatsuya’s memory, the hundreds of days filed away that had started out here. 

“Back to the kelp?” Tatsuya says. 

“Yeah,” says Taiga, giving him a sheepish grin. “I thought you might like to see it again.”

“Do you come back often?”

Taiga hesitates. “Not without you.”

Oh. Taiga’s cheeks are slightly pink. Tatsuya flicks his tail, gently brushing over Taiga’s with his fin, and Taiga looks back at him. 

“Thank you,” says Tatsuya. 

Taiga squeezes his hand, and they continue onwards.


End file.
